France acknowledges role in violent repression of Cameroonian independence movements

France acknowledges role in violent repression of Cameroonian independence movements

Emmanuel Macron communicates findings of joint commission to President Paul Biya

France has formally recognised its involvement in decades of violent repression against independence movements in Cameroon, continuing a gradual process of confronting its colonial-era actions.

In a letter to Cameroonian President Paul Biya dated July 30, President Emmanuel Macron wrote that “today it is up to me to assume France’s role and responsibility in these events.” The letter, made public on Tuesday, transmitted the conclusions of a joint Franco-Cameroonian commission set up to investigate the repression of independence movements during the colonial period from 1945 to 1971 and to examine crimes carried out by the French-aligned government of Ahmadou Ahidjo after independence. The letter noted that Biya served as prime minister under Ahidjo from 1975 to 1982.

Macron’s communication said the commission’s historians had “clearly established that a war was fought in Cameroon, during which colonial authorities and French military forces inflicted various forms of violent repression in several regions of the country.” It added that the conflict persisted after 1960, with France supporting actions taken by the independent Cameroonian authorities. Macron did not offer an apology or propose reparations in the letter.

The commission, first announced at a joint press conference held by Macron and Biya in Yaoundé in 2022, published its findings in January in a 1,035-page report. The report estimates the human toll of state repression at tens of thousands and documents incidents including the killing of nationalist leader Ruben Um Nyobè.

Blick Bassy, the Cameroonian singer who co-chaired the commission, said the work represented only the start of a prolonged process. He called for efforts “to locate and identify the bodies in mass graves and also to address the land issues that continue to affect a large number of Cameroonians today,” and urged that national mourning and dignified funerals be organised for compatriots who died fighting for the nation. Bassy’s 2019 album, “1958,” was noted as a tribute to Um Nyobè.

The French side of the commission emphasised the need for public engagement and educational measures, arguing that integrating this history into school curricula is essential both to prevent repetition and to allow the French public to understand and come to terms with the country’s past. For many years, France resisted confronting the record of its colonial empire, which extended from Algeria to territories in West and Central Africa. In recent years, a new generation of historians and activists — including many from former colonies — has challenged official French narratives that downplayed or omitted the violence of 20th-century colonial rule. That movement has coincided with a wave of anti-French sentiment across Francophone Africa that analysts say has helped fuel coups in the region against governments perceived as aligned with Paris.

Former French president François Hollande acknowledged “extremely problematic, even tragic episodes” during a visit to Yaoundé in 2015. Macron, observers say, has taken a series of symbolic steps that supporters view as responsive to demands for reckoning while critics describe them as incomplete. In 2018, France began returning 26 cultural objects to Benin after commissioning a report co-authored by French art historian Bénédicte Savoy and Senegalese writer Felwine Sarr, which argued the items were part of living cultural memory rather than mere museum artefacts; a 27th object traced to Finland was returned to Benin in May. Correspondence seen by The Guardian in July indicated the French government had signalled willingness to negotiate reparations with Niger over the massacre of thousands of its people during the 1899 Mission Africa Centrale (MAC), though France again stopped short of issuing an apology.

Experts quoted in the report and commission statements say the debate should move beyond cultural restitution toward a direct discussion of historical debt, and they hope France’s official recognition will initiate a broader and sustained process of reckoning. As Bassy put it, the moment presents an opportunity “for Africa to confront its history… to reconcile itself, but also to address its future with greater clarity and confidence.”